show your diy defrets

a job that's currently in progress, and the first B & B 5-string I've seen made into a lined fretless (not that it hasn't been done, I just haven't seen any images so far)



the first of two epoxy coats still needs a little cure time before I level it in prep for the second coat.

all the best,

R

 

B&B basses?

 

B & B = bound & blocked

all the best,

R

 

The best thing that ever happened to my Toby Deluxe.



Rodent, that's a nice piece of work you have there.

 

Thats good news for me then... How does it sound fretless?
And what did you use to fill in the slots?

 

Did it for a friend on his guitar.

 

Both nice clean jobs. I defretted a guitar a while back, I don't think I have a picture of it. I'll snap a picture of the neck tomorrow, if I remember to.

 

I used toe nail clippers to pull the frets on my former Squier P Special 5. I began at one end of the fret and worked it away from the fingerboard a bit, moved to the other end of the fret, moved it away and gently worked back and forth so I didn't dent the fingerboard. It worked very well!

I used 0.020 in. polystyrene for lines attached with superglue (IIRC) and sanded it smooth afterwards...came out quite nice!!

 

Assuming I can get the attachments to work, here's my Ibanez ATK 300 (MIK, '90s version not reissue). Bought it specifically to defret after playing my brother's ATK 300FL factory fretless. It was pretty beat up when I got it...

In terms of tools, I used a cheap pair of cutting pliers ground down with an oilstone so that the cutting surface was right at the end of the pliers (so it lifted out the frets really easy), and a radiused sanding block from stewmac.

Maple chips a lot less than rosewood, but I masking taped either side of each fret before pulling them out and superglued back any chips.

The fret slots were widened slightly with a hacksaw blade, then filled with walnut veneer from an art supplies store, with the slots filled with superglue before pushing in the veneer.

I shaved down the veneer bits to nearly in plane with the fingerboard, then sanded with the radiused block. Lowered the nut but sanding the bottom of it, strung with flats, set it up and voila! It plays and sounds great, though not quite as smooth as the factory one (but it sounds more uprightish than the factory one, so I'm very happy.


Steve

 

The local wood store where I also bought the tung oil, sand paper, etc. They had all kinds of veneers that happened to be the exact size of the holes where the frets used to be. They even had zebrawood, maple, etc. I think it was a little over 5 bucks for a ~5"x10" piece, plenty to work with. Try to find a local store that imports woods.

 

I just did it! I took out the frets in my RBX170. It's awesome!!

Now I need to fill in the frets

 

You'd want something more like this:



So you can pull up from underneath the fret. Make sense?

 

They're not going to grip the fret right, you're gonna have to tug like crazy and it'll rip up your fretboard. You can get that tool that I posted above at a hardware store for less than 5quid. Do it right, please. I'd say it's better to spend the 5quid on the right tool than screw up the bass cause you used the wrong tool.

 

I said that I've been kicking around the idea...I haven't done it yet...I don't even have a 2nd RBX170, yet...

when I do, however, I'll use maple veneer to fill the slots, and it will sound awesome!

 

yep...you can get an ordinary pair of nippers like that and grind the top of the jaws so that the place where the jaws come together is flush with the top surface...that way you can get right under the fret....capisce?

 

You really don't need something so big and heavy. Toe nail clippers (with a flat blade) work really well because the blades are thin and get under the frets with minimal damage to the fingerboard.

I'll try to take some photos later tonight and post them...

 

Here they are... the "tool" and the tool in action.